Minister Berner attends the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Minister Berner attends the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Finland's Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner will attend the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 22–25 February.

She will take part in a ministerial round table discussion and speak at an event at the Finnish pavilion. She will meet the Swedish Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Information Technology Mehmet Kaplan, Mexican Deputy Minister for ICT Monica Aspe, Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov; and many international representatives of the sector.

At the Finnish pavilion the international audience will be introduced to the 5G Test Network Finland, 5GNTF. It joines the test networks of the 5G programme of Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, into a single entity.

As the features of several test networks are brought together, the 5GTNF environment is able to better respond to the research and development needs of future 5G systems. There are 40 partners involved in the cooperation. Minister Berner considers it to be internationally unique.

"Besides the unique collaboration it is also exceptional that in Finland frequencies may be allocated to product development and testing use. The first 5G testing licence was granted in October. We welcome all equipment manufacturers to apply for a licence from the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority," she says.

"An active and forward-looking spectrum policy is essential for the introduction of 5G. Finland is striving to influence internationally and in the EU so that enough appropriate frequencies will be found and allocated for 5G," Minister Berner says.